I’m Burning Down My Web Design Business (sort of)

This is my weekly newsletter posted to my blog. If you’d like to have it delivered straight to your inbox, click here.

​I’m pivoting my web design business.

A few months back, I started feeling restless - like I had painted myself into a corner with my niche.

My business has centered on web design and marketing templates for interior designers. But I was slowly realizing that to scale to the level I want in that niche, I would need to take on topics beyond the scope of web design that are specific to interior designers and then create products or services around them.

You may know my background is landscape architecture, and while the base business model for home design professionals is the same, there are still key differences. Some interior design topics I don’t have the experience or desire to handle to the level I’d want to deliver from Scale Studio.

Yes, I could outsource, but to offer a product or service and also have relevant, helpful discussion around it, I want to have true, personal expertise.

For the record, I totally believe in ‘learning and teaching what you’ve learned’ as you go. For example, the last couple months I've been immersing myself in copywriting and marketing psychology to improve my skill set, and I've been passing some of it along.

The difference here in my opinion is I’m never going to be an interior designer, so I can't speak to certain topics from personal experience. (But dang if that FF&E blog post isn’t ranking #1 on Google! I do understand SEO. 😎)

So back to pivoting - I had listened to the conventional wisdom that said niche down, niche down, niche down.

And I do think there's a lot of validity to it. (A notable contrarian voice was marketing guru Neil Patel. He argues the opposite, saying you should go after the market with the largest TAM possible (Total Available Market.)

So I consulted with a coach.

Interestingly, she’s an Instagram coach but her program is high touch and goes well beyond reels and ‘vanity metrics.’ @kristinasocial delves into your market niche, brand strategy, and how to turn followers into buyers.

She said something that hit me like a ton of bricks:

“Your niche is not a person, it’s the problem you solve.”

This was a big shift for me.

Rather than focusing “my niche” on an ideal client, instead my niche is solving problems relating to small business lead generation. Specifically, how to get more eyeballs on your business using your website as the central marketing hub.

This shift has been very freeing.

Now instead of feeling constrained by topics centered on interior design specifically, I’m able to explore a broader range of topics that benefit a larger group.

Make no mistake, these topics are still totally relevant to interior designers! (I’m looking at you especially when it comes to SEO! Your gorgeous portfolio is pointless if no eyeballs are able to find your website to see it!)

She also confirmed another suspicion I had. My business model is ‘I teach you website and marketing strategy so you can do it yourself instead of relying on (and paying) someone else.’

Yes I'm a HUGE believer in the proverb:

"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime."

I accomplish this through a course or template sold at a fraction of the cost of done-for-you client services. It’s an ideal scenario for you, but it means my business model relies on volume rather than a smaller number of high paying clients.

The coach said: “You need volume, and that market’s probably not large enough.”

Again, if I expanded into other areas helpful to interior designers, it would work. But I just addressed that.

So by that point, it was all I needed to hear, and I made the decision to pivot.

That was a couple months ago. Fast forward to now. I’ve mostly sorted out my niche expansion. The information I deliver is essentially the same, it’s just messaged differently. It took considerable time figuring out what the new messaging would be, then rewriting, and I also did a mini-site redesign.

Now my website is revamped as 'websites, SEO, and copywriting for service providers.' Take a look.

But here’s where I’ve really struggled: a new approach to content creation.

My content strategy so far has worked, but not as well as I want to scale further, so I need to make changes.

I came across writer-entrepreneur Dan Koe and this one hit me:

“Self awareness is the biggest business hack.”

This can be applied to any part of business of course, but he was specifically addressing content creation in this YouTube video.

He goes on to say (paraphrasing):

‘If you were to read/watch your own content - through the lens of your audience - do you think they would share it?

Would YOU share it if you were consuming it?

Would you click the profile, read the Bio, and then follow?’

If the answer is “No” then the next step is to identify the gap and improve on it.

​You know the saying,

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

To me, this means posting every day doesn’t accomplish a lot if your followers/ subscribers/ business isn’t growing.

Being consistent has a tremendous amount of value, but it isn't just for the sake of "being consistent and showing up."

This was another shift for me.

One huge point of “being consistent” is the data we get from doing something many times.

When we are consistent we have data to look at. A lot more than we'd have if we only do something sporadically. Then by studying the data analytics, we can see what’s working and what’s not.

We can spot trends.

Then we make changes based on what we learn. We can eliminate what’s not working and double down on what is.

That’s where I am now. I’m in the process of trying new things and also trying to figure out why some things aren’t working. It’s no cakewalk for sure, but it's necessary.

I’ll keep you posted.

Have you made any changes or pivots in your business lately? Seems like it’s ‘tis the season.’

If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a note below. Be sure to check back for my response (I always respond) since no notification is sent.